Courses

Übung: Materialität und Technik des Buchs – Fonts, Fonts, Fonts!

Instructors: Daniel Reynolds
Shortname: 05.610.23_130
Course No.: 05.610.23_130
Course Type: Übung

Requirements / organisational issues

During the semester, students will work with software from Affinity. These programs are available free of charge and can be used on laptops running Windows or macOS. iOS versions are also available for Apple iPads. However, owning one of these devices is not a requirement for taking this course. There are, for instance, there is a Book Studies DTP lab with 10 iMacs in it, each of which has the various Affinity programs running on it.

Contents

What would books be without text? A key invention of Gutenberg’s was identical, recurring characters. Until the 1970s, books were printed with metal type. Since the 1960s, digital fonts have been on the rise. These led to the fonts that everyone now has on their computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Gerrit Noordzij once summed it up perfectly: Typography is writing with pre-made characters. In this exercise, we will explore fonts. That will include handwritten letterforms as well as printed typefaces – those from past and current typefaces published in 2025 and 2026.

Dates

Date (Day of the week) Time Location
04/16/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
04/23/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
04/30/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
05/07/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
05/21/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
05/28/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
06/11/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
06/18/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
06/25/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
07/02/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude
07/09/2026 (Thursday) 10:15 - 11:45 01 491 P110
1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude